Cave Refuge

But now, things are different. After the flood receded, whether it was due to tectonic movements when Blue Star was expanding or some other special reason, when the floodwaters receded and the Imperial Court was surveying the terrain to build a base, a coal mine was unexpectedly discovered.

As of this time, energy is the most fundamental aspect, as for the entire industry, the most basic need is boiling water, or rather, steam, as no matter how advanced the technology is, it requires electricity to function.

The methods of generating electricity are few, and when talking about the simplest and most stable method, it naturally refers to thermal power generation. For long-term stable thermal power generation, an ample supply of energy is undoubtedly a crucial factor.

Other methods like solar power, hydropower, or wind power generation, require the advancement of the technology tree and the creation of specialized equipment and instruments before construction can even begin.

Furthermore, after the Magic Capital Base built the thermal power plants, another unexpected benefit was discovered. Using the power plant's need for cooling and condensation, they managed to increase the ground temperature of the salterns, much like the northern heating before the natural disaster, hence accelerating the efficiency of salt production at an extremely low cost.

With these two fundamental infrastructure facilities in place for citizen welfare, the Magic Capital area had another not so stable but potentially very rewarding special encounter.

That was the outdoor spatial portal that Dong Tianyu had once experienced. The situation with privately built bases is unknown for now, but among those built by the Imperial Court, only around the Magic Capital Base do spatial portals occasionally appear, bringing creatures from other planes.

Due to these sporadically appearing spatial portals, each time one appears, it's not connected to the same plane; they are basically random planes, so nobody knows what might come through these portals to the vicinity of the Magic Capital Base.

Initially, the Magic Capital Base would dispatch professional teams to handle this matter, which was also the primary reason for establishing the Special Team. However, as the spatial portals appeared more frequently and the base was short-staffed during its initial establishment, due to various factors, the Special Team was unable to handle these randomly appearing portals in any location.

But because the creatures arriving through these portals after they appear have unknown values, there were always those willing to take the risk for potential profit.

Gradually, those survivors who were unwilling to join the Imperial Court and did not want to be restricted formed their own Hunting Teams. The Officials, upon noticing this situation, very flexibly established a special department.

By utilizing the special abilities of the Awakeners, the Officials could determine the location of a spatial portal as soon as it appeared, and then share this location with the Hunting Teams, allowing members of these teams to eliminate the otherworldly creatures that descended near the Magic Capital Base.

Of course, every time a spatial portal was detected, a squad of Special Team members was dispatched. Initially, their goal was to monitor these Hunting Teams to prevent the members from fleeing in the face of overly powerful new otherworldly creatures, thereby providing early danger warnings to the base.

At that time, the role of the Special Team gradually shifted from originally eliminating otherworldly creatures to monitoring the battles between the otherworldly creatures and the Hunting Teams. Only after the Hunting Teams completely eliminated the otherworldly creatures and the spatial portal was fully closed, could the Special Team members return.

However, as time passed, the Magic Capital Base gradually demonstrated a siphon effect, leading to a constant increase in the number of Special Team members. However, the number of those in the Hunting Teams also surged massively, like bamboo shoots after rain.

Now, even though the Special Team already possesses sufficient combat personnel, the numbers in the Hunting Teams are even greater, and within these teams, some members have also developed the ability to sense the spatial fluctuations emitted when spatial portals form.

Due to this, the rule originally set has been carried forward to this day, but as the number of members in the Special Team gradually increased, merely monitoring without any action also led to dissatisfaction among some members.

To avoid disputes and infighting, a tacit understanding and unspoken rule gradually formed between the Special Team and the Hunting Teams: after the opening of the spatial gate, if the Special Team arrives before the first Otherworldly Creature appears, they capture the first Otherworldly Creature; other Otherworldly Creatures that appear thereafter are captured by other Hunting Teams based on their arrival order.

Since forming a Hunting Team requires registration and verification by the department established by the Officials, there is no need to worry about a single Hunting Team arriving early and splitting into multiple teams to occupy the front ranks.

After all, although the number of Hunting Teams is increasing rapidly, as time passes, everyone gradually becomes familiar with each other. It's quite simple to learn about the number of members in other Hunting Teams, although secrets might not be widely known.

These Otherworldly Creatures that descend around the Magic Capital Base through the spatial gate are not all weak; encountering those with formidable combat prowess, a Hunting Team without sufficient combat strength can easily suffer casualties.

Thus, most Hunting Teams consist of five to ten members. Although having more members might dilute individual earnings, it effectively ensures that their combat strength isn't easily compromised.

Even if the gains from each battle are not high, continuous participation ensures not only safety but also that total earnings do not decrease by much. After all, it should be noted that injuries not only affect the earnings of the next battle but also require expensive treatment.

Because the Special Team and the Hunting Teams have gradually formed this understanding, and with the Special Team having the identity of the Officials, other teams present also subconsciously adhere to this tacit rule that has gradually become customary.

Moreover, precisely because everyone tacitly adheres to this rule, if they do not encounter an Otherworldly Creature with particularly strong combat abilities, whether it's the Special Team with the identity of the Officials or other Hunting Teams drawn by rumors, they usually do not assist each other unless it comes to the point of team annihilation.

It is also for this reason that Hunting Teams acknowledge the precedence of the Special Team members in engaging the first Otherworldly Creature. This not only shows respect to the Special Team with the identity of the Officials but also allows an assessment of the Otherworldly Creatures' actual combat strength by observing the Special Team in battle, prompting weaker Hunting Teams to voluntarily withdraw.

Therefore, it is normal for the Special Team to sustain casualties after engaging, and there have been instances where more than half were lost. However, the complete and sudden disappearance of all members of Leonard's team, like a traceless vanishing, has gradually garnered significant attention from the Officials.

Initially, the constables responsible for the investigation thought it was done by others since, through investigation, given Leonard's character and his status as Squad Leader, he had indeed offended many in the past.

However, after thorough investigation, it was discovered that most of those Leonard had offended had alibis, and even those without alibis lacked the capability to make Leonard disappear without a trace.

Once human foul play was ruled out by the investigators, they immediately thought of Otherworldly Creatures, especially since Dong Tianyu had encountered monsters capable of Anthropomorphism and Hypnosis at the Ye Liuyun base, and similar encounters had occurred at the Magic City base.

Although they eventually found the monsters' weaknesses and eliminated them, the number of humans killed by these creatures was not small.

Therefore, once the possibility of human-caused incidents was excluded, the investigators naturally shifted their attention to Otherworldly Creatures.